The present invention pertains to a recirculating deep-fat fryer used for cooking various types of food products within a heated bath of cooking oil; and more particularly, to a recirculating deep-fat fryer having a combination continuous and batch filtration system.
A typical recirculating deep-fat fryer will include a fryer vat containing a heating bath of cooking oil. The cooking oil is adapted to receive baskets of food products such that the food products will be immersed within and cooked by the heated cooking oil. Such recirculating fryers will also include a heat exchanger and a pump. The pump is responsible for continuously pumping the cooking oil from the fryer vat, through the heat exchanger and back into the fryer vat such that the cooking oil remains at a substantially constant temperature, thereby allowing the food products to be evenly and consistently cooked within the fryer vat.
To extend the useful life of the cooking oil, it is a common practice to filter the particulate food matter from the cooking oil to minimize the carbonization of such food matter within the cooking oil. Some conventional fryers utilize a batch filtration system, in which the cooking oil is drained from the fryer vat and then manually or mechanically filtered before returning the cleansed cooking oil back to the fryer vat. Other conventional recirculating fryers utilize a continuous filtration system, in which a continuous filter is placed within the fluid path of the cooking oil, so as to continuously filter the cooking oil as being recirculated between the fryer vat and the pump.
Even with such continuous filtration recirculating fryers, there is often a need to perform the batch filtration process on the cooking oil at the end of a predetermined period of time, if a more thorough filtration of the cooking oil is desired. Alternatively, the cooking oil in such continuous filtering recirculating flyers must periodically drained from the fryer vat so that the fryer vat may be cleaned out. Once cleaned, it is often desirable to return this drained cooking oil back to the fryer vat.
Accordingly, with either of such conventional systems, it is often necessary to provide extra floor space for a separate batch filtration system that is typically wheeled from fryer to fryer, performing the batch filtration operation. A disadvantage with such batch filtration systems is that during use, they will need to be positioned to the side or the front of the fryer vat, taking up aisle space and work space within the kitchen.